Clink Prison Museum

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  • Address
    1 Clink St, Southwark, SE1 9DG
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  • Phone
    7403 0900
  • Website
  • Transport
    underground rail: London Bridge

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Lonely Planet review

Used to detain debtors, whores, thieves and even actors, this was the notorious address that gave us the expression 'in the clink' (in jail). The poky, rather hokey museum inside reveals the wretched life of the prisoners who were forced to pay for their own food and accommodation. There's a nice little collection of instruments of torture, too.

From about 1503 this was the private jail of the bishops of Winchester, who had owned vast estates and wielded absolute power on the South Bank of the Thames since the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066. The bishops ran the notorious Bankside brothels and the Clink was often used to jail prostitutes who displeased their masters, along with debtors, thieves and even actors. It was burned down during the Gordon Riots in 1780, but hadn't been used for a century in any case.